Poor Boy band rehearsal

Had 1st full band rehearsal this afternoon. Brett is an amazing guitarist. AMAZING!! Maree had her cello. Its proving to be a very acoustic sound. Warm and rich. I'm liking this direction. Almost chamber music. We explored a bunch of the tunes - getting into the subtle details, finding ways to highlight the forms with slight changes in texture and lots of space. The songs are growing on me. Tim Finn's sense of harmony is fantastic. There's one bit that could have been lifted straight from a Sun Ra composition if you can believe that!
I'm thinking again to make a set up more percussive and less drumkit based. A big deep drum, triangles and finger cymbals, gongs and singing bowls. Another practice tomorrow eve.. looking forward to that.

TFW: Fringe Fair in Myers Park

Today was the Fringe in the Park mass showing - a load of acts converged in Myers Park to show some tit bits, including Genevieve, Nigel, Tahi and I of These Four Walls. John and Genevieve set up the Booth of Echoes and Remembrances early in the afternoon. Tahi, Fern (our 14 month old daughter) and I arrived a bit later. Tessa, who is performing with us at Lopdell House, was there handing out flyers and looked after Fern while Tahi and I performed. The four of us improvised our way through some poems of Genevieve's and we slipped in some snippets of some of the scenes we had devised last week. Played for about 15 minutes. I played bodhran (which always sounds so beautiful through a nice big PA), gongs, and sampler. Nigel played banjo. Gen sang and spoke. Tahi sang, spoke, and gonged a bit. It was fairly chaotic and fresh as a Wellington southerly. No doubt our show next week will be more drilled, but I for one hope we can retain the freshness that comes from not quite knowing what will come next...

Before our performance I handed out a load of flyers to passers by and explained what we are about - here is my take on us:

These Four Walls is a company interested in site specific work. We find a building we like, delve into the history of it, learn some of its stories etc, and present our findings in a poetic, musical, theatrical complex from within the very building.

Festival Garden

I'm performing a few gigs in the Festival Garden as part of the Auckland Festival. Here's the list of acts. I'll be playing with the Grant Winterburn Experience (definite jazz leanings), James Duncan and Sean Donnelly (kraut minimalist tendencies), Storehouse (old calypso and blues - really old, and very very groovy), and Age Pryor (loop based avant pop improvisations)...  

Poor Boy

Auckland Theatre Company are putting on Poor Boy for the Auckland Festival. Had my first rehearsal with musical director John Gibson and bassist Maree Thom on Wednesday night. John's interpretations of Tim Finn's songs are superb!

These Four Walls

Its coming soon!! Here is a link to the website:
http://fourwallstheatre.blogspot.com/

Its an Auckland Fringe Festival show

And you can buy tickets here - I hope you buy a ticket! I think it's going to be a fabulous show.

Its been great working w Gen, Tahi, Tess, Regan and Nigel. The rest of the cast join us for todays rehearsal and we open next week! I'm looking forward to sculpting the music as the whole piece comes together over the next few days. Lopdell House is a beautiful venue and the acoustics in the upstairs space are exquisite!

The Year Ahead

Things are hetting up and its going to be a busy year I think! I'm going to document my musical work as best I can to give you a taste of what is going on in the musical worlds I inhabit........ enjoy!